Perceptionally Challenged
by SilverUmbra
Summary: Because perception is the basis of all affection. Or something. -For the "A Contest of Sorts" Challenge- 35 legendaries, 35 oneshots and a whole lot of chaos thrown in. Round 1/35- POV: Zapdos.


_Well, even though I can't enter the contest, I did decide that I wanted to do the challenge. It seems like fun. I promised myself I would keep it short, 800 words at most, but well... heh. Anyways, this is the first entry, through the "POV"/centered around Zapdos. It's got a little Articuno in it too, because I like how I made him._

_Round: 1  
_

_POV: Zapdos_

_Pairing(If one): Faint ZapdosxArticuno  
_

_WordCount (Approx.): 1700  
_

* * *

Hitchhiking a ride from the gentle uprisings of sea-born air from below, Zapdos' jagged wings tore wisps away from the fluffy clouds drifting around her with barely contained frustration. Despite the fact that she hadn't had to deal with any of her irritating, weak, whining counterparts yet, her day still hadn't gone as nicely as she would have liked. Of course, while most beings were content with nice weather and peaceful thoughts, the avian of thunder wanted nothing more than a terrible storm to break the horizon and a battle to rumble through the veins of the earth. She was a warrior, after all.

Resisting the urge to randomly start dropping lightning bolts into serene sea beneath her, she allowed her large wings to dip downwards as she plunged through the white, damp sheen of perfectly fluffy clouds, not flinching in the slightest when she was met by the not so pleasant sting of salt-laden spray against her golden feathers. Jutting her long, sharp talons against the aggravatingly calm surface, the legendary bird gave a shrill cry to vent out some anger, scaring the wits out of a group of Wingull that had been bobbing in the waves.

Served them right; where had the times gone when the mere sound of her name caused mortals to tremble? Yet now they treated her the same way they did a speedboat; they simply fluttered and chittered as they took to the sky instead of bowing down and pleading for mercy. Curse them for daring to take to _her _sky when _she _was there- centuries ago they would have been too scared to keep their _hearts _beating. There was no call of her name, no fear, nothing. She was simply another Pokemon taking their daily flight over the perimeter of island.

This was just another item to toss onto her culminating pile of woe; banking lazily, Zapdos did a graceful flip and faced towards where her island was, before righting herself and picking up speed. The nice weather was just increasing her dour mood, and she wanted nothing more than to stop the hearts of everything around her with the strongest bolt of electricity she could summon. But no: Arceus had made it clear that hurting mortals wasn't acceptable, and she had made her point heavily. While the Goddess very rarely showed the true extent of her power, when she did it was terrifying.

Of course, a proud legendary like Zapdos would never admit so.

Her feathers rustled at the sudden wind change, and her eyes darted to look to her left, forcing her to bank her wings and drop several feet to avoid a blue shadow from crashing into her right wing. Shrieking, the legendary of thunder righted herself again, wings starting to crackle dangerously with thin threads of yellow electricity as she glared at the puffy barrier of clouds that the attacker had disappeared into.

Before she could give chase, issue a challenge or just start blasting off bolts, her attention was snapped towards the unmistakable sound of feathers rustling, and too slow to dodge, she was rammed full on by whatever had swept by earlier. Giving an enraged squawk, the thunder hawk struggled to flip midair, trying to make sense of the pale blue feathers of her attacker. Blue, white, more blue, more white- it all blurred into one mess of aqua and chalk that left her so confused she barely realized she was seconds from being plunged into the ocean below.

Giving another shrill cry, the avian managed to slam her wings hard enough to send the being tumbling away from her, and Zapdos barely flared upwards in time to flutter away from the ocean. Dark eyes searched the sky for the enemy who had dared to challenge her, who she was going to incinerate as soon as she found out where they were...

... Only to spot the pale blue, long-tailed avian of the arctic, Articuno tumbling and laughing like the irritating pest he was.

"What the hell!" Zapdos all but roared, "Attacking me for no reason, I should kill you like the irritating pest of a..." The words died in her throat as she realized that he probably couldn't hear her over his hysterically giddy giggles. "Stop laughing, you lice-ridden pigeon!" She snarled, octaves louder than before, eyes narrowing all the more as the ice legendary composed himself and evened out the flapping of his icy, grand wings. His brilliant ruby eyes settled on her own pair of garnet, obviously amused at her outburst.

"Ah, Zappy." He purred, obviously about to lapse into another fit of laughter. Zapdos narrowed her eyes, clenched her talons and scattered more sparks of electricity from her large, spiked wings at the nickname. "It seems like you've lost your touch. Falling for a simple skydive like that..." He shook his crested head, tsking. "I suppose it can't be helped, you _are _getting old."

Being her counterpart whom she had know for her entire life, Articuno knew exactly what buttons to push, and how hard, to get Zapdos angry. Of course, when it was a short-tempered hawk like her, it wasn't too difficult to do. Reminding her of her age only forced her to recall the ancient times when they were dominant, and that fueled her explosive rage further than any other insult. Meanwhile, Articuno was proud of his lifespan so far, as it meant that he was all the more wiser than how he had been in the past. But that didn't matter much; he and she were on opposite sides of the spectrum.

So, while he only chuckled at any mention of the 'ancient times', the gold and black avian of lightening slammed her wings together, filling the afternoon silence with the clash of thunder. The avian of the arctic wasn't worried, it would be some time before she would start dropping lightening bolts, and he'd be gone by then. When he tuned back into the real world, Zapdos was shrieking the usual, "Shut up!" in his face. It was times when she was about to lose it when he said something strange, just to jut her out of it and force her to think.

"You're know, the legends those humans tell about you are pretty true."

Zapdos' fanning, spiked wings abruptly stopped their excessive flapping, a sure sign that she had been startled out of her rage. "What the hell does that have to do with anything?!" She squawked, puzzlement and anger flickering across her face. Articuno was sure to stay away from her long, sharp beak; he valued his eyes, after all. A smirk dancing across his own short, dark blue bill, the bird swooped up from under her just to make her move her glare.

"Oh, you know. About the thunderbird." He started, voice casual. "When it flaps its wings, there is thunder. Even when the sky is clement. You're the same, aren't you?" His golden counterpart gave a low growl, resisting the urge to grab his ribbon of a tail and drown him in the ocean below. "Of course, if you blink, do you drop lightening bolts?"

"Why don't you come closer?" Zapdos started, voice dangerously low. "And maybe we can find out."

"No thanks." He replied cheerily, whistling. As he noticed that she was starting towards her island again, he swiftly banked up to stop her. She snapped her long, jagged beak in a silent threat; a threat that went ignored. "So you're the thunderbird. Moltres is the phoenix... what's that make me? Don't you ever wonder?"

"No." The hawk barked, "I already know what you are. An irritating pigeon of a legendary who's only purpose in life is to bother me."

Articuno scoffed, pretending to be insulted. "That hurts, Zappy. That really hurts." He paused thoughtfully, then brightly added: "Again, a question!" Zapdos scoffed, but didn't swoop past him for a reason unknown to her. Perhaps if she waited long enough, she'd get a chance to attack him; maybe even kill him. That would make her day. She was so submerged in her thoughts that she barely realized that he was still talking. "... if when you blink you drop lightening bolts, and when you flap your wings you create thunder..."

"Yes, yes." She replied hastily.

"... What happens when you blush?"

Once again, the gold and black hawk's wings paused mid-flap, and she threw out a glare that could have made a lesser being's head explode. "I don't know. I don't blush like a school girl with a crush. Idiot." She backed off midair when he suddenly darted forward, closing the distance so quickly that his face seemed to appear inches from her's without warning. This close, Zapdos could feel the chill of his icy feathers, and the wind his frozen wings created with their movement- it caused a feeling to bubble up in her chest that she wasn't used to feeling. Anxiety.

"Why don't we find out, shall we?" He purred.

Zapdos blinked - half wishing that that part of the legend was true- before allowing a dangerous look to cross her face. Articuno seemed to realize that she was about to electrocute him, because he gave one of his light, pure laughs before patting her back with one of his wings. The contact left her jagged feathers tingling- and if from the chill or something else she didn't know.

"Haha... I'm just messing with you, Zap." He chuckled, before turning tail and starting towards his own island. "Well, I gotta run. As much as I love joking around, I have work to do." The pale blue avian slid his vibrant red eye to acknowledge her one last time, and- to her disgust- winked. "See you tomorrow." With a deep flap of his large wings, the legendary of ice and snow disappeared into the clouds with a flick of his ribbon-like tail, leaving Zapdos to watched after him with eyes narrowed in puzzlement.

And somewhere, the clap of thunder echoed at the horizon.


End file.
